This invention relates in general to cover art work for published materials and in particular to a method to modify the cover art work to display required indicia.
Both public and private libraries need to mark their circulating materials with indicia to include classification and identification information, such as, for example, the library branch or location and catalog information for locating the material within the library. In the past, such information has been individually placed upon labels that are then affixed to an accessible place upon the circulating materials. Typically, the labels are placed upon the dust covers of books, the outsides of VCR cases and upon the artwork contained within CD jewel boxes or DVD cases.
A typical known process for applying the desired indicia to circulating materials is illustrated as a flow chart in FIG. 1. The process is entered through block 10 and proceeds to functional block 12 where a publication, which may consist of multiple copies, or titles, of the publication is received by the institution. The publication may be in a printed medium, such as a book or periodical, an audio medium, such as a CD or audio tape, a visual medium, such as a painting, picture or map or audio-visual medium such as a video tape or DVD. The dust cover, or jacket, which typically contains art work, the title and author, is removed from a hard cover book in functional block 14. Similarly, the cover art work is removed from CD jewel boxes or DVD cases. One or more labels with the specific institutional indicia, such as a call number and name of the institution, are prepared in functional block 16 for each of the titles being processed. The preparation may consist of typing the information onto labels or perhaps preparing the labels by hand or with a personal computer. The labels are affixed to the dust cover or cover art work in functional block 18. The modified dust cover or cover art work is then replaced upon the title in functional block 20. For periodicals that do not have a separate dust cover, the labels are applied directly to the periodical cover. Finally, each of the titles is placed into circulation by the institution in functional block 22 and the process is exited through block 24.
The preparation of such individual labels for each title is labor intensive and hence both time consuming and expensive. Also, because each label must be individually prepared, there is a chance that erroneous information may be applied to the materials. For example, a mistake in the catalog number applied to a title could result in the title being misplaced within the library and thus cause difficulty when it is desired to retrieve the miss-labeled item. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a more efficient method of affixing the information upon the circulating materials.